10 Most Important Albums In Metal History

For all of the amazing metal that had been churned out in the '70s, it had started to look a little too dark for some coming into the '80s. Even though acts like Deep Purple were still going strong, Led Zeppelin had long since died after the passing of John Bonham and it was uncertain where Sabbath were going to go once Ozzy left the group. This was a dark period for metal, so it's only natural that a few lads from Sheffield wanted to remind us how to have fun again.

While Van Halen's debut may have set the tone for what people think of as glam metal, Def Leppard may be the first real pinups of the genre, strutting their stuff across MTV with one sing along chorus after another. Whereas most of their early stuff seemed to fit in with the British metal scene at the time, their collaboration with producer Mutt Lange brought some of the best hooks that the genre had ever known, like the layers of vocal harmonies on Photograph or the AC/DC by way of Queen sounds that turn up on Rock Rock Til You Drop.

Even though there was a metal edge to a lot of the guitar tones (courtesy of Phil Collen), this was one of the first hair metal albums that actually suggested something a little bit more interesting than just a bunch of chugging riffs for minutes on end. These guys were just as much fans of Bowie as they were of Sabbath, and who said that the light and the dark sides of rock and roll couldn't mingle every now and again?